Zambia, mining and neoliberalism: boom and bust on the globalized Copperbelt, edited by Alastair Fraser and Miles Larmer, London and New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, 320 pp., £60.00 (hardback), ISBN 9780230104983
Zambia has assumed a critical importance in the study of African political economy in the last decade as a result of two, or arguably three, intertwined processes: globalisation, privatisation and the rise of China in Africa and its contestations. The recent election of Michael Sata in Zambia has arguably been a substantial setback to the seemingly unilinear ‘rise of China’ in Africa, at least in its relations with political elites. This book explains the background to this event, in addition to providing excellent analysis and empirical insights on the reconfiguration of the economy and society of the Zambian Copperbelt.
Zambia is one of the world's major copper exporters, and production increased dramatically as a result of the recent commodity boom. A central theme which runs throughout the book is the contradictions and contestations around the governance of copper as a globalised commodity and a ‘national’ resource. Additionally, some locals in the Copperbelt also feel they should be the primary beneficiaries of this resource. One of the chapters described how, in order to achieve a social licence to operate, a recent investor agreed with local chiefs to only recruit locals from a particular ethnic group. While this may be advantageous in the short term by cementing support for ‘traditional’ rulers, mining, through reductions in the amount of land they may distribute, may undercut their longer-term power.
The book is replete with detailed analyses of the impacts of the copper boom and the strategies different actors have employed in order to maximise their income from this resource. One chapter describes the strategies of ‘shape shifting capital’, where some investors have complex cross-holdings and ownership structures in order to maximise profits and minimise responsibilities. The dramatic drop in the copper price in 2008 resulted in devastation for some copper-dependent towns, while strengthening the presence of Chinese state-owned investors with access to long-term capital. The book also shows how certain informal actors were able to prosper from mining slag heaps during the pa illegal era before some companies had asserted their rights to re-mine these ‘deposits’. However, relative prosperity in certain instances led to social ostracism and accusations of satanism and witchcraft.
The authors, for the most part, come from a political economy tradition primarily, but the book also contains other voices and perspectives. Christopher Adams and Anthony Simpasa have a chapter entitled ‘The economics of the copper boom in Zambia’. They are much more sympathetic to the World Bank/IMF programme of economic liberalisation in Zambia than the other authors. They offer a good description of the political economy of decline in Zambia in the 1980s and events such as the ‘humiliating appointment of an IMF-approved expatriate governor of the central bank’ (p. 64). The halving of national income arguably led to acceptance of quite extreme liberalisation, which became institutionally and ideologically embedded in the Zambian state, so much so that the initially secret ‘development agreements’ signed with international investors during the privatisation period meant that no tax revenue accrued to the government directly from the mining sector. They also argue that the Zambian state ‘overshot’ with its monetarist policies. During the copper boom the government imposed ‘windfall’ and other taxes which were then reversed when the copper price fell. What these swings demonstrate is the extreme dependence of the Zambian economy – and society – on international market conditions which have effectively compromised sovereignty.
As noted earlier, Chinese investors have become a major presence on the Zambian Copperbelt. However, many of these investors had amongst the lowest environmental and labour standards. For example among the companies that Haglund studied, the Chinese Non-Ferrous Metals Corporation ‘was the only one that did not have any recognized international standards in place’ (p. 102). An official from the Environmental Council of Zambia also noted that they ‘faced real challenges with the Chinese investors, because their technology is so dirty’ (p. 103). Haglund also argues that the African subsidiary of the Non-Ferrous Metals Corporation sought stability by attempting to have the Zambian government broker its social contract, through consultations with stakeholders for example. However this approach has subsequently been challenged with the election of Michael Sata as president, as he has promised tougher enforcement of government regulations.
This is an exceptionally well-written and argued book. While much of the debate on privatisation and the rise of Asian investors in Africa has been polemical, this book relies on detailed and dispassionately presented data to make an argument about the changing configuration of power and social relations in Zambia's Copperbelt. By illuminating a principal site where globalisation has grounded in Africa, this will be an important text for scholars and students, not only of Zambia, but of the continent more generally.